Hong Kong played host to the first Asia Cup race of 2023. It has been a long-awaited return to the city. The last Asia Cup to be held on the island was in October 2018 after travel restrictions made it virtually impossible during the pandemic.
Hong Kong also saw a sizeable contingent of local and Chinese athletes take the start line. China in particular has been absent for much of the past few years, with few of its athletes making international appearances in triathlon.
Men’s race
The Pertl brothers, Lukas and Philip, were the top ranked athletes entering the race. The elder of the Austrian pair, Lukas, made short work of establishing himself as a front-runner.
Racing over the Sprint distance, Amu Omuro of Japan led the field through the swim. He recorded an 8:50 split and dragged a large group into T1. Meanwhile, Lukas Pertl took out the swim in 9:01 and sat comfortably in the main pack, with his brother 5 seconds behind.
There was little to separate the men on the bike and, in the end, it quickly became a running race out of T2.
Lukas Pertl, Nanhe Wang and Yunxiang Ma led the way.
Omuro, the 2022 Asian Junior champion, tried to hang with the pace as did the 2022 Asian Junior silver medallist, Takuto Oshima. Both Omuro and Oshima will still be in the Junior category this year but both fell off the pace as Lukas Pertl, Wang and Ma separated themselves.
Hong Kong was only Ma’s second international race and his inexperience showed a little as he missed Pertl’s decisive kick at the finish. Neither Wang nor Ma were able to respond and so Lukas Pertl was able to take the win in relative comfort. Wang and Ma finished 6 seconds later and had to be separated on the line, with Wang ultimately winning the silver medal.
Omuro held on for 4th and Oshima came home in 5th. Both will likely hope for big seasons in the Junior ranks.
Women’s race
In a rather unusual scenario, the women actually out-swam the men. Therese Feuersinger of Austria led the way with a split of 8:42, while Sara Vilic of The Triathlon Squad was close behind in 8:45.
Feuersinger and Vilic led a group of six women into T1, however Xingying Yu of China lost time in transition. That meant a front pack of five started the bike together.
Unlike the men’s race, the women’s bike saw plenty of action. A big surge from Chinese duo Meiyi Lu and Xinyu Lin saw them bridge to the front. Meanwhile, Zoe Metais of Hong Kong lost touch with the leaders and ended up losing over a minute on the bike.
As Lu and Lin made it safely to the front, their compatriot Wen Wei began to pull a big turn and applied a lot of pressure to the group. Vilic fell behind and began to slip off the back of the group towards the latter stages of the bike.
Han Wang of China was just about to keep touch with the trio of Lu, Lin and Wei.
Once onto the run, though, the race became a shootout between Lu and Lin almost instantly. They ran stride for stride for most of the course, gaining considerable time over Wang, Wei and Feuersinger.
From further back in the field, Hungarian athlete Zsófia Kovács and Japanese athlete Chisato Nakajima put together strong runs. Their times of 17:37 and 17:42 were still slower than that of Lu and Lin, though.
In the closing stages, Lin managed to win the sprint finish. Lu had to settle for silver and the consolation of a 17:31 run split which was faster than Lin by 1 second.
Over half a minute behind, Feuersinger managed to pip Wei at the finish. Kovács ran through to take 5th.
View the full results here.
